‘Vast majority’ of direct air capture research through air’s moisture swings relies on engineered ion exchange resins to sequester CO2 Other previously untested materials with dual functions like aluminum oxide and activated carbon would reduce associated energy and cost Cheap, scalable carbon capture will be critical to reducing worldwide carbon footprint EVANSTON, Ill. --- Researchers at Northwestern University have expanded the potential of carbon capture technology that plucks CO2 directly from the air by demonstrating that there are multiple ...

Photos and b-roll package available for download here. LOS ANGELES — USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, has opened Keck Medicine of USC – Newport Beach Radiation Oncology and Imaging, a state-of-the-art radiation oncology and imaging center, at 4590 MacArthur Blvd. in Newport Beach.   The 12,500 square-foot clinical space houses new-to-market imaging and radiation therapy technology in a serene, beach-inspired space designed to help patients feel at ease.   “Our new radiation oncology and imaging center demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing Orange County with world-class care,” said Rod ...

New York City, New York (April 3, 2025) – The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY) today announced nine new investigators to its growing roster of talented researchers. Joining from Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University, the eight projects will focus on the Biohub’s mission to harness and bioengineer immune cells for the early detection, prevention, and treatment of a broad spectrum of age-related diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders and aggressive cancers. The funded projects support a variety of innovative strategies, including leveraging synthetic biology to address the limitations of current ...

New research in Social Psychological and Personality Science shows that White Americans living in counties with higher Black poverty rates are more likely to believe racial equality of opportunity exists, while attributing racial disparities to lack of effort.  Led by Dr. Nicolas Sommet, the research included three studies with over 17,000 participants across hundreds of U.S. counties, using both observational and experimental methods to examine how exposure to racial inequality shapes beliefs about its causes.  "Our findings highlight how the environment we live in shapes how we understand racial inequality," explains ...

A massive wave of solar wind that squished Jupiter’s protective bubble has been detected for the first time.  Scientists at the University of Reading have discovered a solar wind event from 2017 that hit Jupiter and compressed its magnetosphere – a protective bubble created by a planet's magnetic field. This created a hot region spanning half Jupiter's circumference and exhibiting temperatures exceeding 500°C – significantly higher than the typical 350°C atmospheric background temperature.  A new study published today (Thursday, 3 April) in Geophysical Research Letters, describes for the first time a solar burst that scientists now believe hits ...

There are over six million Americans with heart failure who are at greater risk of losing their cognitive abilities earlier in life, a study suggests. The research team, led by Michigan Medicine, examined the cognitive abilities of nearly 30,000 adults over time, comparing those who did and did not develop heart failure. The researchers found heart failure is associated with a significant decrease in cognition at the time of diagnosis. Global cognition and executive functioning also declined more rapidly over the years after heart failure diagnosis, as people with the condition mentally aged the equivalent ...

The ways in which CEOs learn, apply what they have learned, and make decisions are significant to the innovating capabilities of SMEs, states Jutta Mäkipelkola in her doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa, Finland. Her research reveals how the skills of CEOs shape the capabilities of SMEs – and what kind of organisational culture drives innovation. The importance of capabilities that enhance the innovativeness and renewal of companies has become more apparent during uncertain ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – A new method to recycle wind turbine blades without using harsh chemicals resulted in the recovery of high-strength glass fibers and resins that allowed Washington State University researchers to re-purpose the materials to create stronger plastics. The innovation provides a simple and environmentally friendly way to recycle wind turbine blades to create useful products. Reporting in the journal, Resource, Conservation, and Recycling, the team of researchers cut the lightweight material that is commonly used in wind turbine blades, called glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP), into approximately two ...

Milan, Italy – 3 April 2025. Low neighbourhood walkability is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to research presented today at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2025,1 a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).  The health benefits of physical activity are well established and yet more than a quarter of adults do not meet the recommended guideline of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.2 “Neighbourhoods designed ...

Language learners often assume that using rare, complex vocabulary will make their speech sound more fluent. Research suggests that there is a close relationship between formulaic expression usage in speech and acoustic features of oral fluency. This implies that using formulaic expressions leads to faster articulation speed and fewer disruptions during speech. However, in terms of how listeners perceive speakers’ fluency, the role of formulaic expressions has been unclear. To investigate this, Ph.D. student, Kotaro Takizawa and Research Assistant Professor Shungo Suzuki from Waseda University, Japan, analyzed speech from 102 Japanese speakers ...

Directive 2010/63/EU laid down restrictions on animal testing for the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients throughout the EU. Therefore, there is an intense search for alternatives to test the absorption and toxicity of nanoparticles from cosmetics such as sun creams. A team of researchers from Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in India is working on the development of skin imitations that mimic the native three-layer tissue structure and biomechanics of human skin. Such imitations can be produced ...

The first-of-its-kind in-depth bacterial evolutionary map could pave the way for the development of precision treatments for certain antibiotic-resistant infections, such as urinary tract infections. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and their collaborators, have developed a new way of using large-scale long-read sequencing data to investigate circular genetic structures called plasmids in the most commonly studied microbe, Escherichia coli (E. coli). Through this, the team were able to track the flow ...

(Philadelphia, PA) – Neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s involve progressive neuronal loss due to disease-induced damage. An enzyme known as dual leucine-zipper kinase (DLK) plays a key role in this process, telling neurons that are damaged or unhealthy when they should cut their losses and self-destruct. Hence, sparing neurons from DLK is an attractive therapeutic strategy that could slow disease progression. Past attempts to inhibit DLK’s action in human patients, however, led to unexpected side effects affecting the nervous system, suggesting that DLK ...

A switch of just two weeks from a traditional African diet to a Western diet causes inflammation, reduces the immune response to pathogens, and activates processes associated with lifestyle diseases. Conversely, an African diet rich in vegetables, fiber, and fermented foods has positive effects. This study, published in Nature Medicine, highlights the significant impact of diet on the immune system and metabolism. Lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic inflammatory conditions are surging across Africa, posing a growing challenge to healthcare systems throughout the continent. Increasing economic ...

By Shawn Ballard Imagine a world where industrial waste isn’t just reduced, it’s turned into something useful. This kind of circular economy is already in the works for carbon. Now, researchers in energy, environmental & chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a promising pathway to convert harmful nitric oxide, a key component of acid rain, into valuable nitric acid, which is used in everyday applications from fertilizer production to metal processing. Feng Jiao, the Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU, and collaborators developed a method ...

For patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a common genetic disorder that ravages the waste-removing organ with cysts, dialysis and transplantation are among the only treatments. More than 12.4 million people worldwide suffer from the dominant form of the condition. Now, Rutgers University geneticists have uncovered fresh details of how the disease progresses – findings that could open the door to new therapies. In a study published in Nature Communications, Inna Nikonorova, a research assistant professor in the Department of Genetics within the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, reports on a novel way to identify and track material carried ...

A new study, published today in Nature Chemistry by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University, shows how common gut bacteria can metabolize certain oral medications that target cellular receptors called GPCRs, potentially rendering these important drugs less effective. Drugs that act on GPCRs, or G protein-coupled receptors, include more than 400 medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of many common conditions such as migraines, depression, type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer and more. “Understanding how GPCR-targeted drugs interact with human gut microbiota is critical for advancing ...

Birmingham scientists have shown that a sequence of just three amino acids may reduce the severity of psoriasis, when applied topically in an emollient cream.   The researchers, whose study is published in Pharmacological Research, identified the smallest part of a peptide (small protein) called PEPITEM, which occurs naturally in the body and regulates inflammation.   The study also showed that both PEPITEM and the three amino acid (tripeptide) sequence delivered a significant reduction in the severity of psoriasis, that is comparable to a steroid cream.    Psoriasis ...

A new study has found that young vapers in the United States who begin using e-cigarettes after graduating from secondary/high school are likely to progress rapidly to frequent use. While US youths who start vaping during secondary/high school typically take about three years to progress to frequent use, this newly identified group of young adults who start vaping a bit later, after graduation (mean age = 20 years), tend to reach frequent use in about one year. ‘Frequent use’ is defined as using e-cigarettes on 20 or ...

Commonly called the “corpse flower,” Amorphophallus titanum is endangered for many reasons, including habitat destruction, climate change and encroachment from invasive species.  Now, plant biologists from Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden have added a new threat to the list: incomplete historical records. In a new study, scientists constructed the ancestry of corpse flowers living in collections at institutions and gardens around the world. They found a severe lack of consistent, standardized data. Without complete historical records, conservationists were unable to make informed decisions ...

AI has created a sea change in society; now, it is setting its sights on the sea itself. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a machine learning-powered fluid simulation model that significantly reduces computation time without compromising accuracy. Their fast and precise technique opens up potential applications in offshore power generation, ship design and real-time ocean monitoring. Accurately predicting fluid behavior is crucial for industries relying on wave and tidal energy, as well as for design of maritime structures and vessels. ...

Big appliances, like washing machines, ovens and refrigerators, are a major investment for many households. Consumers hope that these appliances will last for decades. More and more, however, people have the perception that these big-ticket items might not be lasting as long as they once did. But when Kamila Krych looked at actual trends in product lifetimes as a part of her PhD research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Industrial Ecology Programme, she found that wasn’t quite true. “Despite what people think, there is no evidence that product lifetimes are decreasing,” she said. “Many people think that products have been becoming ...

Organoids have revolutionized science and medicine, providing platforms for disease modeling, drug testing, and understanding developmental processes. While not exact replicas of human organs, they offer significant insights. The Siegert group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) presents a new organoid model that reveals details of the developing nervous system’s response to viral infections, such as Rubella. This model could influence pharmaceutical testing, particularly benefiting drug safety for pregnant ...

A new study has found that the world’s finest yodellers aren’t from Austria or Switzerland, but the rainforests of Latin America. Published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and led by experts from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and the University of Vienna, the research provides significant new insights into the diverse vocal sounds of non-human primates, and reveals for the first time how certain calls are produced. Apes and monkeys possess special anatomical structures in their throats called vocal membranes, which disappeared from humans through evolution to allow for more stable speech. However, ...

Differences in the distribution of certain proteins and markers in the brain may explain why some people first experience vision changes instead of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease, finds a new study by UCL researchers. Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease that, rather than causing problems with memory, leads to difficulties with reading, navigating, and recognising objects. Studies suggest that one in 10 patients with Alzheimer’s disease have a form which is visual, rather than memory led. As well as presenting with unusual symptoms, ...